Superman favorites

Favorite Superman-Despite only a  .500 average for good movies it’s got to be Chris Reeve definitely. The look, the stance, the attitude he was how I always picture Superman.

Favorite Clark Kent-Wait, Supes and Clark don’t go together? Well, not always. Favorite Clark is Dean Cain. To me he reflected the attempt to be down to earth without being too goofy. Granted Clark was the star of the show so unlike other Clarks Dean Cain got more screen time. Still he’s my favorite.

Favorite Lois Lane-Teri Hatcher, I mean it’s really not even close. The look, the attitude, the eventual chemistry with Clark all work.

Favorite Jimmy Olsen-Actually a tough decision here as there were some good Jimmys except for Justin Whalen who made my skin crawl, but to me Jack Larson from the 50’s show embodied how Jimmy was in the comics of his decade better than the others who later played the role.

Favorite Perry White-I’ll probably here it for this, but despite all my problems with the movie Frank Langella still came across to me as how Perry White should be in Superman returns. Jackie Cooper and John Hamilton were solid in the role and Lane Smith was hilarious at times, Langella just had that lookof how I had pictured the character to be like.

Favorite Lex Luthor-I like Gene Hackman, but he played it a bit too “oh, I”m just a mortal coward”. For me it’s definitely John Shea from Lois and Clark and no having hair didn’t effect the portrayal at all. He was a ruthless, cunning, insane Lex that tormented Superman.

There you go, feel free to growl, agree, disagree, add your own choices or all of the above.

Superman 3

Ah Super Heroes and comedy, how could that work? I mean look at that Green Hornet movie…oh, wait I turned that off after 30 minutes. Okay, so Richard Pryor was brought into to liven up the franchise because the previous film was dullsville..oh wait Superman 2 was actually spectacular. So he was brought to just screw things up although he sure isn’t the only problem here. This film is far below the first two, but not quite the total stink pit that the forth entry is.

In Superman 3 we get….

-an opening scene that although it isn’t great seems to have more thought behind it than most of the rest of the film

-way too much Richard Pryor

-Clark on vacation for his graduation

-some villains who  are not terribly bright or all that interesting

-a subplot about Superman going bad as drinks and whores around

-above subplot leads to Supes vs. Clark as they battle it out in a junkyard

-a final fight with Superman taking on a computer/robot space taking up thinigie that is controlled by the meanies, but then it get s mind of it’s own

plus there’s uh.. no that’s really most of it.

Ewwww, Superman smells of cheap booze, sweat and old cheese.

The negatives-I gave this chance the other week after not having seen it in maybe three years. Quite honestly while not a total failure it is certainly a real mess. Too much comedy, not enough hero vs. villain action. Actually if it was funny maybe it could have worked, but the film has little humor despite their weak attempts to get fans to snicker. The plot comes across like they wrote several different semi-written bits and then ripped the pages in half, put parts of them together at random and said hey here’s our finished script let’s go make a movie. The finale had me looking at the clock and sighing a lot, it was just a waste of time.

The positives-Very little Margot Kidder made me happy because I can’t stand her as Lois Lane. I kind of like the Supes vs. Clark fight, but I’m totally sure if it’s because it’s good or if it’s because at that point in the film I was so bored that any action no matter how contrived was welcomed by my numb brain. Annette O’ Toole as Lana Lang worked well for me. Oh it may look silly now but when then missile is afternoon Supes and we see the video game looking version-yeah I really loved that part when I first saw it and I still in an ealry 80’s video game kind of way.

Lois who?